NIPC Law

A question that I am often asked at pro bono IP clinics as well as in my practice is who owns the copyright in a commissioned work when the graphic or web designer or software house fall out with their customer. The basic principles were set out by Mr Justice Lightman in  Robin Ray v. Classic FM Plc   [1998] ECC 488, [1998] EWHC Patents 333, [1998] FSR 622, (1998) 21(5) IPD 21047, [1999] ITCLR 256 and amplified and clarified by the Court of Appeal in  R Griggs Group Ltd and Others v Evans and Others [2005] EWCA Civ 11. The issue arose again in  Atelier Eighty Two Ltd v Kilnworx Climbing Centre CIC and Others   [2015] EWHC 2291 (IPEC). In Atelier a graphic designer called Rik Kirk made the logos shown above in August 2011. At that time he was an executive director of the design company Purple Penguin Design Ltd. of Timperley near Altrincham. He was asked to create those logos by one Lionel Bunting who was then a director of both the claimant A...

Jane Lambert In  Judicial Review of the Copyright Exceptions: British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and Others v Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills   20 July 2015 I discussed the order by Mr Justice Green to quash The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Personal Copies forPrivate Use) Regulations 2014  SI 2014 No 2361 in    British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors Musicians' Union and others, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Another (No 2) [2015] EWHC 2041 (Admin) (17 July 2015). A statement by the Intellectual Property Office on 20 July 2015 announced that HMG was considering the implications of the judgments and the available options. In the penultimate paragraph of my case note I wrote: "As Hargreaves has recommended that intellectual property policy should be evidence based it may be that applications of this kind will become more ...

Jane Lambert On 16 July 2015 my heads of chambers, Tim Straker QC and Robert Griffiths QC  together with my colleagues, Richard Clayton QC , Charles Morgan , Christopher Forsyth  and Lee Parkhill  presented our chambers annual judicial review conference . By all accounts it was a great success. Ending rhe Personal Copy for Private Use Exception "But what has that to do with intellectual property?" I hear you say. More than you might suppose for on the day after the conference Mr Justice Green quashed  The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Personal Copies for Private Use) Regulations 2014 SI 2014 No. 2361  which had inserted a new s.28B into The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988  (see  British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and Others v Secretary of State for Business etc  (No. 2)   [2015] EWHC 2041 (Admin) 17 July 2015). The section inserted by those regulations had created the followin...